The art has recognized that the properties of aluminum can be improved in a number of significant ways by introducing dissimilar materials having little or no solubility in the aluminum matrix so as to produce a composite material having fibers or particles of reinforcing compounds such as zircon, alumina, zirconia, aluminum silicates, silicon carbide, graphite, etc. distributed substantially uniformly through the aluminum alloy matrix. The problem which has been encountered in successfully introducing such reinforcing materials into the molten metal matrix has been that of obtaining a wetting action between the melt and the surface of the solid reinforcing material so that the reinforcement will not be rejected by the melt and so that a strong bond between reinforcement and matrix will exist once the matrix metal has solidified. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,959 discloses use of a nickel coating on particles such as graphite to cause wetting of the particle surface by molten aluminum. U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,557 proposed including magnesium in molten aluminum to obtain wetting of particles such as zircon and U.S. Pat. No. 4,012,204 proposed including lithium in molten aluminum to promote wetting of the melt in an infiltration process for producing a composite containing alumina fibers.